"We've been waiting for this day: our little reader would finally become a big boy tablet - without having to resort to any sort of hackery. We knew it was coming and, as of now, owners of the Barnes & Noble Nook Color should be receiving notices that their devices are ready to drop those training wheels and run some proper apps. Flash web browsing, downloads, games, e-mail, it's all here."

and without paying anything extra, you can ALSO do lots of other things IF YOU CHOOSE to do so

I don't see it like that at all. The nook color is a budget tablet, which is fine if that's what you want. The kindle is an actual ebook reader. A device with an LCD screen is not in the same league as a device with a proper sunlight-readable screen. Sure you can read a book on an LCD screen, but that's no better than a laptop. I don't see the attraction of the nook. It's an inferior tablet compared to the iPad or Xoom, and it's an inferior book reading device compared to the Kindle. It does a bit of everything, but I wouldn't be satisfied with either.